The use of fanner magnets is well known in the manufacturing arts. Fanner magnets serve to fan out or separate sheets in a stack of metal sheets, thereby facilitating the movement or transfer of sheets through the use of utilizing handling devices, such as pickups, suction cups, or other lifting or moving devices. Such magnets operate on the principle of creating repelling polarities among adjoining individual sheets in a stack.
There are a wide variety of methods used for separating magnetic sheets. One example is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,916, issued to James A. Beck, and teaching a plurality of magnetic elevator devices disposed along the sides of a vertical stack of magnetizable steel objects, such as sheets. Another type of device is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,006, issued to Fred Bole, Jr., et al., and discloses a fanner magnet assembly including a power-actuated carriage for movement relative to a stack of sheets.
A particularly useful type of magnetic separator is the pallet pin-type, of the type manufactured and sold by Industrial Magnetics under the descriptive name “magnetic pin fanners” as shown in the Industrial Magnetics' brochure Auto 8B (6/00), and described in a currently pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/932,801. Pallet mount permanent magnet pin fanners are unique in that they are readily positionable around a stack of metal sheets mounted to a pallet, where they serve the dual function of confining the lateral movement of the sheets as well as separating them.
However, whereas the earlier-filed application, above-referenced, teaches a useful device, it has been learned that significant improvements may be made in the art of pallet pin sheet fanners utilizing a floating magnet assembly.
A floating magnet assembly for use on sheet fanners is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,847,212 by D. E. Stem. This device and methodology, however, are limited in that the '212 invention is not a pallet pin-type device and because the movable magnet assembly therein contained is mounted in such a way as to allow jamming, preventing free movement of the floating magnet assembly in relation to the stack of sheets to be separated.
The present invention overcomes the limitations of the prior art by incorporating a roller-mounted magnet assembly movable along the length of a cylindrical rail. The entire magnet assembly and rail are positioned within a housing which is readily repositionable and in the form of a pallet pin.